Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee, Kholoud Imhammad Meqbil Al-Mseidin, Mohd Faiz Mohd Yaakob, Mohammad Al-Zubi
ABSTRACT
Green kindergartens are positioned as a growing phenomenon in early childhood education (ECE) arising within a worldwide context concerning sustainability, environmentalism and holistic child development. These are realized through, for example, sustainable architecture, nature-oriented learning environments and education for sustainable development, and are seen as an avenue for providing environmental education to develop children holistically. Despite the rapid spread of green kindergarten programmes across schools, evidence for the effectiveness of green kindergartens remains thin. This systematic review examines in particular empirical studies on green kindergartens and early childhood education environments with an emphasis on sustainability. Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework, we searched across major databases including Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and ScienceDirect. Twenty-five peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2005 and 2024 met the inclusion criteria and were analysed using theme synthesis. Preliminary findings indicate a correlation between green kindergartens and children’s cognitive capacity, socialisation, emotion regulation, exercise, and environmental awareness. Additionally, educational systems focused on sustainability - outdoor education, experiential education activities, project- based environmental education - were acknowledged as central to green kindergarten systems. We highlight pressing questions about teacher preparedness, resource allocation, policy coherence. This review argues that green kindergarten systems provide promise for improving sustainable ECE - and calls for substantial, detailed and multi-year rounds of research to support this proposition.
Keywords:
Green kindergartens
Early childhood education Sustainability
Systematic review PRISMA
